That Unsightly Dent in the 1980's
by Sparkling Cyanide
Summary: An Alternate Take on the episode Father's Day. The Doctor leaves Rose in the 1980's after she creates a paradox, leaving her alone to face the consequences.


A/N: Hello everyone. This is my first writing a Doctor Who fanfiction so any comments or critiques would be appreciated. This is an alternative ending for the Series One episode Father's Day. I always felt watching that episode that the Doctor forgave Rose a little too easily so here is an alternate take on the matter. As always, standard disclaimers apply. Doctor Who is not my intellectual property. I'm just having fun with it.

That Unsightly Dent in the 1980's

The Doctor was angry. Anyone looking at him could tell by the tense set of his shoulders, the forbidding expression on his face and the manner in which he stormed down the street.

Reaching the TARDIS, he unlocked her and stepped inside, resisting the urge to slam the door behind him. That wouldn't be fair after all. It wasn't the TARDIS he was angry with. She hadn't done anything wrong.

"Looks like it's just you and me again, Old Girl." He muttered out loud, taking his place at the console, checking the monitors and preparing for flight. "I don't know why I thought this time would be any different."

Once again, the doctor mused, he had chosen another stupid human ape - and a selfish one to boot. Well. No more, he vowed. After the War he found that he preferred his own company anyway. He certainly didn't need an emotionally manipulative child hanging off him - enough distractions. His survivor's guilt led him to believe that he deserved punishment for his role in the Time War, but even his most masochistic tendencies didn't believe he should tolerate THAT.

How stupid did Rose Tyler think that he was exactly? He knew humans - petty, selfish, small minded humans - too busy gazing at their own navels to worry about the consequences of their actions. He was Lord of Time, with an instinctive understanding causality. As such, he wouldn't have allowed situation that tempted her to cause a paradox to exist, if there wasn't already a solution when the inevitable human error occurred.

In some ways he supposed, it had been a test - a test of her character. When situations were tempting, could he really depend on her to listen to him and do the right thing? The answer, sadly, was no.

Thousands of millennia of Time Lord science and philosophy could be explained thusly; there were events the universe that were fixed and there were events that were in flux. The challenge was in differentiating one from the other and appreciating why.

There was certainly a lot of flux in the time line of Rose Tyler. It was one of the reasons the Doctor had been able to take her along as a companion. Some people could never travel with him - no matter how much he liked them or how much they liked him. They had to stay where and when they were and do what they had to do. Not so with Rose Tyler. It was like she just wasn't necessary in her own time and space. Maybe that was the universe's way of saying she wasn't all that important.

Still a paradox existed and was causing a problem. The Doctor didn't worry too much. That very paradox would be its own solution.

* * *

Rose wandered down the street toward the TARDIS, trying to get away from the sound of her parents arguing. It was so disappointing - not the least bit like what she imagined and certainly not like her mother's stories.

Aside from saving her dad, of course, the whole day was something of a letdown. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting but it had something to do with being swept into the loving arms of both her parents and everything being alright forever and ever. Not that this scenario seemed very likely at the moment.

Pete and Jackie were now all but screaming at each other in front of a stunned audience of awkward bystanders, swearing divorce. Rose, herself, had been treated as with suspicion as a stranger and an interloper, and on top of that, the Doctor was mad at her. Not that she was all that worried about that last one. He'd come around eventually. She knew how lonely he really was behind that facade. He couldn't live without her.

Finally coming to the street corner, Rose stared in shock at the big blank space where the TARDIS wasn't parked.

"Very Funny, Doctor!" She muttered out loud, but she wasn't worried. She could wait a little while longer in 1987. Let the Doctor have his temper tantrum. He'd come running back for forgiveness soon.

Just as she was pondering how long to let him squirm, she was overwhelmed with a feeling of dizziness and pain.

"Doctor?" She called out sitting heavily on the curb. "This isn't funny anymore!"

Perhaps the Marty McFly analogy they had talked about earlier was a little too accurate, Rose realized, staring in shock as her hands became transparent.

"Doctor?!" She bravely tried to hold back her panic as pain shot through her chest and the rest of her body faded.

She was still calling for the Doctor as she slowly but surely ceased to exist.

* * *

Jackie Tyler was tired of this - tired of Pete and his lies, tired of the little blonde interloper who he had to flaunt in her face - today of all days!

She turned her back on him abruptly - tired of the yelling and screaming, tired of the accusations and the disappointment - just tired.

Clutching her seven month old daughter to her chest, she began to walk away from him, from the wedding, from everything she thought her life was supposed to be.

She stepped her foot of the curb, intent on getting to the other side of the street and putting as much distance between herself and him as possible. She was so upset - her eyes blinded with tears and runny mascara, that she never did notice a speeding car with an inattentive driver take a sharp corner and head straight in her direction.

* * *

Standing on the control deck of the TARDIS lost in thought, the Doctor shuddered, feeling an uncomfortable sensation make its way down his neck and shoulders to the base of his spine. Turning to the main TARDIS monitor, he began to scan the timelines and surrounding space to see what had caused the disturbance.

It seemed that somewhere in the 1980's, a pattern of timelines had rippled, resolving a minor but somewhat uncomfortable temporal bubble.

Time Lord minds were immensely vast in both their perceptions and understanding of dimensions well beyond the human mind. As such, the Doctor could see what was, what could be, what never was and what should never be.

As he scanned the monitor he noted a now defunct timeline. It was unusual, being twisted around itself in a circular, paradoxical manner, but it was nothing the Doctor hadn't seen before. It stretched from 1987 to approximately 2005 and detailed the potential companionship of one Rose Tyler. As he examined it in more detail, the Doctor's Time Lord senses screamed SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN.

He shrugged. The timeline was clearly of no consequence, broken as it was from the main events of the time vortex. The ripple had managed to resolve itself without the need of his intervention. All that was left was a rather unsightly dent in the 1980's. Not that anyone else was around to notice anymore.

He turned away from the monitor for a moment to drift in the melancholy mood that often overwhelmed him now that the War was over.

For once his feeling of depression didn't last long as he found himself face to face with a rather angry ginger bride.

As the woman launched into a tirade about suing her kidnappers and making him rue the day he was born, the Doctor felt his naturally stern expression melt into a manic smile.

"Fantastic!"


End file.
